Price in Holland seems to be €4799. Way to high for an entry level Leica M.
I hoped it would be more like €3995. Seems fair for a camera with a three year old, not very sensitive chip, that has to miss some of the M goodies like the frame-line selector and also a USB port.

RobertJRB

I think 4800 euro is quite fair for a full frame rangefinder with brass body. The sensor might be 3 years old, but it just delivers the same great pictures as it did 3 years ago.
They make the ME in the same way and with the same materials as the M9 and M9P. Why would a different color and the loss of usb port and frameline selector mean the price to drop 1500 to 2000 euro?
If they really could offer an really cheap ME, it would mean the M9 and M9P were really overpriced all the time. It now shows those camera’s are just expensive to produce.

Off course a lot of people hoped for a 3500 or 3995 euro ME, and a pricedrop of the M9 into the 2000 euro zone, but thats just not gonna happen.

RobertJRB

Oh, and u still can see the other framelines. Just press the lens remove button (don’t know how its called) and twist the lens gently in both directions. It selects the other framelines.

Someone should invent a video camera that can be focused on the subject it is shooting. That would be really cool. Maybe one day in the far future….

René

Price of the original M9 is lowered to €4995. You must really like the grey color to prefer the ME over the M9, that is available in black and silver for just €200 more!
The M9 gives you a frame-line selector and USB port for that money as well.
I think its strange that the price for the ME is just 12% under the M9’s original price.
I think Leica should have offered an entry level camera at a pricepoint at least 30% under the original price of the M9. That way they could have opened the market for newcomers in the M segment.
Now it feels like the ME buyers pay for the development costs of the new “M”.

Michael Piro

In the United States, the price difference between the M9/M9-P compared to the M-E is largely different. The M9/M9-P is $6495/$6995 now. The M-E is $5450 therefore making the difference $1045/$1545. For paint, a usb port, and an image field selector the added costs may not be worth it.

René

Still just a price difference of 17% between the M9 and the M-E…
A little more than overhere in Europe but not a major price gap i think.

John Harvey

Used M9 however going for ~$4300 US on Ebay…I”ve been monitoring the trend. This is definitely the way to go.

http://leicarumors.com LR admin

I think they will drop even more. Currently the M9 in stores is more expensive than the M-E.

MMMMM

Will have to wait for the M-E-P that has the red dot eliminated before purchasing!

René

How about a M-E-M? Cheap black&white at last!

http://leicarumors.com LR admin

I was thinking about a Leica MM – the latest M with b&w sensor.

Troilus

People keep saying the M-E should be less expensive. Perhaps, but can you imagine the kvetching from current M9 owners if they had priced it at $4000 or even $3500 as some people suggest? It would have destroyed the market for used M9s, and current owners would be up in arms saying that Leica had betrayed them, threatening class-action lawsuits, etc. Leica owners are a particularly breed and many tend to see their cameras as investments as much as photographic tools. The “Leica economy” has very little to do with the photographic industry in general, and is not subject to same rules of logic. Remember, this is a company who just released a $7000 50mm/f2. I say that with due respect, and as a Leica owner myself (M6/M8).

http://www.VolCo360.com Ken Elliott

I was really hoping they would add the old film advance lever as a fold-out thumb grip. I sold my M8 because I can’t stand the way it handles without the film advance lever.

Ted

Its not a budget M9, its an M9 in a different color and without frame line selector and USB port… It might just be me but it seems that some M9 owners are afraid of the price drop of their cameras so they describe the M-E as a lower end camera.

Considering that the M will be priced at the original M9 price, Leica had no other choice but to lower the price of the M9/E in order to differentiate both products from one another.